This Application is a U.S. National Phase Application of International Application No. PCT/IL00/00237, filed on Apr. 23, 2000, which was published under PCT Article 21(2) in English and claims priority to Israel Patent Application No. 129583 filed Apr. 25, 1999, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to using of new polyaldimines with aromatic polyisocyanates for preparing moisture curable and storage stable compositions.
Mixing of poly(1,4-butanediol)bis(4-aminobenzoate) with polyisocyanate gives polymers, which exhibit excellent physicochemical properties (U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,322). In these two component compositions curing speed can be controlled, but the following operations are required: to measure each component exactly on the site, to mix the two components until a uniform mixture is obtained shortly before application thereof and to use the mixture within the pot life, which is usually not longer than one hour. Therefore, a disadvantage of this process is that often under difficult conditions on construction sites one must work with complicated and expensive mixing units having to perform all operations quickly and without the possibility to store the mixture for any length of time.
Thus, it is strongly desired to develop a storage stable one component polymer composition which consists of N-protected poly(1,4-butanediol)bis(4-aminobenzoate) and organic polyisocyanate and may be rapidly cured by atmospheric moisture after application to give polymers, with physicochemical properties similar to those of polymers prepared by mixing poly(1,4-butanediol)bis(4-aminobenzoate) with organic polyisocyanates.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel process for the preparation of polyurea polymers, which does not require measuring and mixing components at the time and on the site of application. The properties of the polymers obtained by this novel process should be equivalent to those of the polymers prepared by mixing of a polyisocyanate with an poly(1,4-butanediol)bis(4-aminobenzoate).
It is a further object of this invention to provide novel compositions and intermediates for the above process.
The above objects are achieved by the present invention, which provides by a first of its aspects new moisture tempered, storage stable single component polyurea compositions, comprising of:
(i) a compound or mixture of compounds of formula [1]: 
xe2x80x83wherein j is an integer of 3 to 30 and R2 is unsubstituted aryl or heterocyclic aryl radical or alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio or halogen substituted aryl or heterocyclic aryl radical;
(ii) an aromatic polyisocyanate and/or a polyurethane/urea prepolymer having terminal aromatic isocyanate groups; and
(iii) a protic acid or salts thereof.
According to another aspect the present invention provides a new process for preparing a synthetic polymer, comprising:
(i) reacting a poly(1,4-butanediol)bis(4-aminobenzoate) [2]: 
xe2x80x83wherein j is an integer of 3 to 30;
with a substantially equivalent amount of an aromatic aldehyde represented by the formula [3]:
R2CHxe2x95x90Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83[3]
wherein R2 is unsubstituted aryl or heterocyclic aryl radical or alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio or halogen substituted aryl or heterocyclic aryl radical;
to give a polyaldimine, represented by the formula [1]: 
wherein j and R2 are the same as above;
(ii) mixing the polyaldimine [1] with an aromatic polyisocyanate and a catalytic quantity of a protic acid or salts thereof, and optionally adding to the mixture auxiliary agents and/or additives;
(iii) exposing the obtained mixture to water or air humidity at the time of application on site to cause curing.
The new polyaldimines [1], that are obtained as intermediates in the first stage of the process of the present invention, represent a further aspect of the invention.